Americans United - Values Voter Summithttps://www.au.org/tags/values-voter-summit
enScaling The Summit: What I Learned At This Year's Far-Right Shindighttps://www.au.org/church-state/november-2014-church-state/perspective/scaling-the-summit-what-i-learned-at-this-years
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>After having skipped the past two Values Voter Summits, I decided to return this year. The first person to recognize me on Friday morning was a very friendly Seventh-day Adventist who gave me a CD of patriotic music and reminded me that I had spoken to her and her husband a few years earlier. I had the distinct impression that these folks held views compatible with my own on core church-state issues. I also thought maybe I should just go home and count the day a success.</p><p>But I couldn’t leave. I had to soak up the spirit of the Sept. 26 event and report on it to “The Ed Show” audience that night on MSNBC. Plus, wasn’t it possible that something would turn out to be very controversial from the lips of U.S. Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz? </p><p>Alas, no such luck. They offered boilerplate. A parade of speakers – among them Rick Santorum, Gary Bauer and Sarah Palin – then tossed out red meat.</p><p>The day was not a total waste. Just before lunch, Oliver North made a somewhat engaging presentation about people who serve in the military. We used to do a radio show together, but I had not seen him in several years so I decided to stop by and say hello at the book-signing table. This turned out to be a little awkward because the Family Research Council’s William G. “Jerry” Boykin was signing his book at the same table.</p><p>Boykin is a former Army general. He and I go back a long way. He’s not very fond of me because Americans United once sent a letter to his commanding officer pointing out that Boykin had visited churches in uniform and made derogatory remarks about Islam.</p><p>How derogatory? He once referred to the god of Islam as “an idol.” He had even come up to me two years earlier at the buffet table and announced that he was glad I had gotten him so much money for his ministry.</p><p>Anyway, North was happy to see me, and we chatted about cable television, the death penalty and how we’re aging. I told him that I thought one of the perks of being on radio with him years ago was that I would get a free copy of all of his future books. He noted that he had actually sold out at the Summit. </p><p>Boykin observed us speaking and jumped in, joking with North that I’m great for his fund-raising. People observing this began pulling out their smartphones to snap pictures of us together – me sandwiched between the colonel and the general.</p><p>But overall, the Summit felt a bit lifeless. Yes, speakers still fulminated over same-sex marriage, but something was lacking. They must know that they have almost surely lost on that issue.</p><p>They are now trying to figure out, post-<em>Hobby Lobby</em>, what they can enact legislatively to be exempt from laws that would otherwise require them to do something (serve a meal, rent a room, bake a cake, sell flowers, etc.) for same-sex couples.</p><p>There was little discussion of “intelligent design” or “creation science,” and even abortion – always a hot-button issue for this crowd – received only scant mention. A few speakers brought up school prayer, but again, the issue has had little traction for them lately.</p><p>So what to say on MSNBC? Several people at the Summit had signs or applauded when speakers said (as many did), “It’s time to take our country back.” Back to what, I wondered? The 18th century? I made that point with Ed and comedian/television host John Fugelsang. </p><p>There were a few other questions I had: Why did Summit speakers not have any new ideas? What was the point of discussing political philosophy (as perennial presidential candidate Santorum did) when the biggest applause lines were all about Islam, the IRS, Benghazi or Obamacare? Fugelsang reeled off some good quips. We finished the show and went home.</p><p>So where are we with the Religious Right these days? What power over the electorate does this faction of the conservative movement really hold? Are they are a “paper tiger”? Is this movement dead? Probably not. Its adherents certainly keep attracting a lot of attention.</p><p>Yet a new dynamic is unfolding: It seems to me that well-heeled far-right groups that are mainly interested in secular issues like taxes, deregulation and privatization have learned to speak this crowd’s “culture war” language. They use it to win their votes.</p><p>And often the extreme right goes on to win because of voter apathy. As I was writing this, virtually every political pundit was predicting a more conservative Senate after the mid-term elections. Articles appeared in newspapers and on websites detailing the complete lack of enthusiasm among voters.</p><p>I am firmly convinced that these “values voters” don’t represent the American political mainstream. Anyone who spends half an hour at the Summit realizes that these people are on the fringe.</p><p>Yet they are often successful. What’s frustrating is the knowledge that they don’t win because they work harder or smarter. Rather, too often, their victories are handed to them by Americans who blissfully sit at home on election day.</p><p> </p><p><em>Barry W. Lynn is executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.</em></p><p> </p></div></div><a href="/about/people/barry-lynn-0">Barry Lynn</a><div class="field field-name-field-cs-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Perspective</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cs-issue field-type-node-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Magazine Issue:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><article id="node-10638" class="node node-church-state-issue clearfix">
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</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/values-voter-summit">Values Voter Summit</a></span></div></div>Mon, 03 Nov 2014 15:34:02 +0000Timothy Ritz10644 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/church-state/november-2014-church-state/perspective/scaling-the-summit-what-i-learned-at-this-years#commentsVVS At The Nadir Of The Summithttps://www.au.org/church-state/november-2014-church-state/featured/vvs-at-the-nadir-of-the-summit
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin descended on Washington, D.C., recently with a clear mission: to rally the right-wing electorate ahead of the November elections. Speaking to a crowd of some 2,500 religious conservatives at the Values Voter Summit (VVS), she told them just what they wanted to hear. </p><p>“So, value voters, don’t let [lib­erals] get you down, OK?” Palin implored Sept. 26. “America needs you, needs your energy, your con­fidence, your voice. And we do need to expand our ranks. So go not as prophets of doom and fear, but as messengers of vibrant life and real hope. We are value voters, and our values were our Founders’ values. They are America’s values. And our message is the message that America wants to hear and needs to hear.”</p><p>The assembled throng gave Palin, who kept the audience engaged with folksy humor and catch phrases like “lamestream media,” a hearty applause following her first VVS appearance. Remarks like Palin’s suggesting that the Founding Fathers would have embraced the VVS are par for the course at the Summit, which claims to revere the U.S. Constitution even though most in attendance believe the First Amendment doesn’t protect non-Christians or guarantee church-state separation. </p><p>The VVS, which is an annual gathering in the nation’s capital, is sponsored by the Family Research Council (FRC), American Family Association and other Religious Right groups. The confab has long given a platform to far-right figures like Palin, who at this point in her career is little more than a cheerleader in the Religious Right’s struggle for the soul of America.</p><p>Overseen by FRC President Tony Perkins, this year’s VVS featured a parade of politicians, pundits and presidential wannabees. Alongside them, fundamentalist leaders encouraged VVS attendees to cast their votes in November because only fundamentalist Christians can save America from the moral ruin caused by secularist liberals who push abortion and same-sex marriage while simultaneously tearing apart the concept of “religious liberty.” Naturally the “values voters” were encouraged to select candidates who have been vetted by the Religious Right, many of whom attended the Summit.</p><p>If you’re not familiar with the VVS, now in its ninth year, it’s a place populated by an unusual cast of characters. As always, this year’s Summit included a booth staffed by members of the American Society for Tradition, Family and Property – a group of far-right Cath­olic men who pine for monarchy and the Middle Ages. Then there were people campaigning for obscure political candidates who may one day run for president, like Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who has come under fire for comparing gay marriage to bestiality. Entre­preneurs offered a variety of right-wing swag for sale, including a children’s book called <em>The Remarkable Ronald Reagan: Cowboy and Commander in Chief</em> and an app to help you pray using your smartphone.</p><p>While the exhibit hall is always a source of amusement, the two-day conference is anything but funny; it’s a warped world where the future is the past – even if the past includes spectacular failure. How else to explain the presence of former Marine Corps Lt. Col. Oliver North, who doesn’t do much these days besides plug his latest book? And in case North’s presence wasn’t enough to assuage anyone longing for the supposed good old days of the 1980s, the man who was once at the center of the Iran-Contra scandal showed a video that included a schmaltzy portrayal of his boss Reagan, a figure this crowd seems to idolize more than Jesus. </p><p>Although the VVS wasn’t much more than an anti-President Barack Obama whine-fest in recent years, this time the rhetoric focused more on encouraging the Religious Right to march to ballot boxes nationwide; while there was still quite a bit of pounding on favorite punching bags such as Obama, gays and Muslims, the meeting at the Omni Shoreham Hotel also featured loud cries that Americans are losing their “religious liberty” in schools, the military and in business, so fundamentalists must band together before it’s too late.</p><p>This sentiment was perhaps best embodied at the Summit by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a far-right favorite and possible GOP presidential candidate in 2016. Cruz, who became a Religious Right folk hero thanks to his open embrace of fundamentalism and his willingness to hold the entire U.S. government hostage in an attempt to thwart Obamacare, told the audience that their beliefs are the bedrock of the United States.</p><p>“This country remains a country built on Judeo-Christian values” said Cruz, whose pandering skills later allowed him to carry the VVS presidential straw poll with 25 percent of the vote. (Carson was second with 20 percent, with Mike Huckabee capturing 12 percent.)</p><p>Cruz went on to criticize the Obama administration’s supposed curbing of religious liberty, telling horror stories of nuns forced to pay for abortifacients – even though that isn’t true.</p><p>“You know, every American should know about the Little Sisters of the Poor,” he said. “You want to talk about values? Right now the federal government is suing the Little Sisters of the Poor to try to force Catholic nuns to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.”</p><p>In reality, it is the Little Sisters of the Poor who are suing the federal government because they refuse to accept an Obama administration compromise that would allow their employees to access birth control without forcing Little Sisters, an order of nuns who run nursing homes for the elderly, to pay for it directly. The Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate requires most for-profit corporations to offer their employees healthcare plans that include no-cost birth control. But religiously affiliated non-profits, such as Little Sisters, are not required to pay directly for birth control. All they have to do is fill out a form stating their objection to providing contraceptives, and a third-party insurance company will take care of the rest. But that simple act of filling out a form is apparently unacceptable to the Little Sisters. (Nor is anyone forced to provide abortion-inducing drugs; scientists have long since debunked the idea that basic forms of birth control cause abortions.)</p><p>With all of the problems in modern America, is there any hope? Cruz thinks so. The answer, you see, lies in the past. God has saved the United States before and will do it again – at least in Cruz’s mind.</p><p>“At every stage in the Revolu­tion­ary War, a ragtag bunch of colonists had no prayer of defeating the mightiest army on Earth,” Cruz said. “But with God’s blessings, we did so. In the Civil War that pitted brother against brother, spilled blood upon our soil to expunge the original sin of this nation of slavery, that should have rent this country apart forever. And yet, with God’s blessings, this nation came back together after that bloody conflict. In World War II, standing against the grotesque evil that was the Nazis, the American people rose to the occasion and saved the free world. In the Cold War, with leadership from America, the Ameri­can people rose up and we won the Cold War without firing a shot and tore the Berlin Wall to the ground.</p><p>“I’m optimistic because of you,” he concluded. “I’m optimistic be­cause I believe in the American people. And I’m optimistic because I am con­vinced God isn’t done with America yet.” </p><p>Another possible GOP presidential contender, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), attempted to excite the crowd by adopting the ill-fitting guise of a tent evangelist.</p><p>“What we need is something more than laws,” Paul said. “We need something that civilizes a nation, and that is virtue. What America really needs is a revival.”</p><p>While Cruz and Paul were hopeful for the future, a relic of the Reagan administration countered that Ameri­ca was a lot better off in the last century. American Values President Gary Bauer, whose glory days came during his stint as Reagan’s undersecretary of education and chief domestic policy advisor in the 1980s, opened with a joke imparted to him by Reagan, one which he has told at previous Summits. He went on to praise Reagan as well as Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy, which seems odd given that the last three were Democrats.</p><p>But Bauer had nothing good to say about Obama, telling the crowd, “Today, while our leaders show weakness abroad, Obama and his allies do everything they can to rip out of our society all the vestiges that made this Judeo-Christian civilization [great].”</p><p>Bauer concluded by paraphrasing Reagan, who once employed a Bible passage favored by the Puritans to call the United States “a shining city upon a hill.”</p><p>“[G]et ready to do very difficult things because that is the only way we are going to save this precious nation, this glowing city on a hill,” Bauer said. </p><p>When the Religious Right isn’t whining about how much better things used to be, it finds other sources of discontent. This year at the VVS, multiple speakers – Cruz, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver and Religi­ous Right attorney Kelly Shackelford – actually bemoaned the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in <em>Burwell v. Hobby Lobby</em> was “only” 5-4 in their favor.</p><p>Christians “dodged a bullet,” Staver said of the high court’s ruling that granted many secular for-profit corp­orations the right to claim “religious liberty” as justification not to offer no-cost birth control in employer-provided health insurance plans.</p><p>“Thank goodness it was 5-4, but it was only 5-4,” said Jordan.</p><p>Perhaps this unease comes from a sense of fear among religious conserv­atives that <em>Hobby Lobby</em> did not go far enough. After all, they claim Christian business owners working in the wed­ding industry are frequently forced to choose between their livelihood and their faith thanks to “discriminatory” equal-access laws that require busines­ses to serve everyone – even same-sex couples.</p><p>Enter Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of the Gresham, Oregon- based Sweet Cakes by Melissa. They were sued for their refusal to make a cake for a same-sex wedding and have since closed their shop because business dwindled.</p><p>Sitting beside his teary spouse, Aaron Klein told the VVS crowd that his wife could not use her “God-given talent… in a manner that would be in the face of what the Bible says [marriage] should be. I couldn’t in good conscience agree to do it.”</p><p>He blasted Oregon officials for their stance, remarking, “[They] said we have religious freedom, but we don’t have the right to break the law.”</p><p>Summit attendees were also whipped up by speakers who laid into the IRS over the so-called Tea Party scandal. The tax agency was por­trayed as running amok.</p><p>In fact, there was less here than meets the eye. A government audit agency called the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which is responsible for IRS oversight, found that 82 percent of organizations with “Tea Party,” “Patriots,” or “9/12 Project” in their names that were audited between May 2010 and May 2012 deserved extra scrutiny. These groups “had indicators of significant political campaign activity in their application files.”</p><p>Therefore, the Inspector General said, these organizations “would have been properly selected for additional scrutiny” even if the IRS had been using activities-based criteria rather than going off of names or policies. And yet House Republicans convinced much of the public that the IRS was unfairly targeting conservative groups, earning the GOP a major public relations victory and scaring the IRS into putting audits of most non-profits on hold indefinitely. Nonetheless, VVS speakers Cruz and Palin called not for reform of the IRS, but outright abolition of the agency. (Neither explained how the federal government would function after that.)</p><p>But tax collectors are not the only enemy of what right-wing commen­tator Mark Levin called the “true patriots” who attend the VVS. The most terrifying threat to the United States discussed at the Summit was Muslim extremists. Unfortunately, speakers made no distinction be­tween terrorists and rank-and-file Muslims.</p><p>Retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert Dees claimed that he has heard ev­idence of sleeper cells inside Am­erica based on phone calls placed from Afghanistan to areas of the United States with large Muslim populations. (He offered no evidence that the content of the calls was sinister.)</p><p>“We have been infiltrated,” Dees blustered. “The enemy is within. I saw… cell phone calls coming from Kandahar, Afghanistan, going to places like Lackawanna, N.Y., Green­ville, N.C., Nashville, Tenn. and Dear­born, Mich. These are all Islamic sanc­tuaries in the United States within which there are fundament­alist sleeper cells.” </p><p>The Summit also provided evi­dence that many fundamentalists don’t care about protecting anyone other than their own. During a panel on U.S. foreign policy, Family Re­search Council Executive Vice Presi­dent William G. “Jerry” Boykin, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, said the nation should consider arming Syria to fight Islamic jihadists, even though that country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, is accused of using poison gas against his own people.</p><p>“Bashar al-Assad is an evil despot, but the reality is he’s never been a threat to Christians,” Boykin opined.</p><p>Although the VVS is advertised as “a forum to help inform and mobilize citizens,” it is generally light on policy and heavy on bombast and red meat. But once in a while, someone with an agenda – such as Louisiana Gov. Bob­by Jindal (R) – decides to unleash some policy talk on the VVS crowd.</p><p>Jindal, who is a relentless booster of school vouchers, constantly has to defend his pet project from attack. So during his speech, he claimed that the state’s “scholarship” program is leading to improved academic performance each year, and that 93 percent of parents whose children receive vouchers are happy.</p><p>Of course Jindal didn’t provide any evidence to back up his claim about academics, and the 93 percent figure came from a deeply flawed study that surveyed just 27.4 percent of voucher parents statewide and failed to ask the students in the program what they think of their voucher schools. The crowd, which generally doesn’t care much for public schools, cheered. </p><p>One of the main functions of the Summit is to offer Religious Right figures an opportunity to make an easy buck off their loyal fans (North, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, Fox News contributor Todd Starnes and others hawked books.)</p><p>But one far-right hero who was not there in person was at least there in spirit – to sell some merchandise. Dinesh D’Souza, recently sentenced to five years of probation, fined $30,000 and ordered to perform community service for violating federal campaign laws, still had a booth in the VVS exhibition hall. And while he could not promote his wares firsthand, D’Souza had a little help from Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R), who offered a personal endorsement for D’Souza’s <em>2016: Obama’s America</em>.</p><p>The lauding of a disgraced and admitted law-breaker was a telling indicator of the true “values” of this crowd. </p></div></div><a href="/about/people/simon-brown">Simon Brown</a><h3 >Annual Religious Right Confab Showcases Eerie Extremism, Sectarian Supremacism And Partisan&nbsp;Politics</h3><div class="field field-name-field-cs-department field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Featured</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/responding-common-attacks-church-state-separation">Responding to Common Attacks on Church-State Separation</a></span></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cs-issue field-type-node-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Magazine Issue:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><article id="node-10638" class="node node-church-state-issue clearfix">
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/november-2014-church-state/au-bulletin/okla-court-allows-ten-commandments-to-remain">Okla. Court Allows Ten Commandments To Remain</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/november-2014-church-state/au-bulletin/mo-city-rejects-in-god-we-trust-display">Mo. City Rejects ‘In God We Trust’ Display</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/november-2014-church-state/au-bulletin/ark-gun-range-owner-bans-muslims">Ark. Gun Range Owner Bans Muslims</a></span> </div></li>
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<div class="views-field views-field-title"> <span class="field-content"><a href="/church-state/november-2014-church-state/au-bulletin/around-the-world-ireland-to-hold-referendum-on">Around The World: Ireland To Hold Referendum On Blasphemy Laws</a></span> </div></li>
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</div></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/values-voter-summit">Values Voter Summit</a></span></div></div>Mon, 03 Nov 2014 15:30:00 +0000Timothy Ritz10642 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/church-state/november-2014-church-state/featured/vvs-at-the-nadir-of-the-summit#commentsLand Of The Lost: Highlights From The Values Voter Summithttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/land-of-the-lost-highlights-from-the-values-voter-summit
<a href="/about/people/simon-brown">Simon Brown</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In reality, the Summit, which is sponsored primarily by the Family Research Council along with the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel and others, is little more than a rally designed to scare evangelical Christians and other religious conservatives into voting for political candidates handpicked by the Religious Right’s leadership. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>The Religious Right’s annual “Values Voter Summit” (VVS) took place over the weekend in Washington, D.C. As usual, it was a mix of homophobia, Islamophobia, religious revivalism and bashing of President Barack Obama disguised as a policy conference. </p><p>In reality, the Summit, which is sponsored primarily by the Family Research Council along with the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel and others, is little more than a rally designed to scare evangelical Christians and other religious conservatives into voting for political candidates handpicked by the Religious Right’s leadership. </p><p>For the most part, speakers threw red meat to the mass of about 2,500 attendees, talking a lot about “freedom” and proclaiming to revere the Constitution – all the while planning to trash it.</p><p>Many attendees seemed bothered by the fact that it’s not the 1950s anymore. And for all of their self-proclaimed piety, their chief leader seems to be President Ronald Reagan, not Jesus. (One conference exhibitor even sold a book for children titled <em>The Remarkable Ronald Reagan: Cowboy and Commander in Chief</em>.)</p><p>These people don’t much like modern-day America. For our country to be great again, they say, it must put its faith in God and embrace “traditional values.” It seems the future is the past for this bunch.</p><p>They complained a lot, too – multiple speakers bemoaned the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby by just one vote. Others railed against the Affordable Care Act, vowing, once again, to try and repeal it even though the previous 50-plus attempts did not succeed. Still others expressed a desire to dismantle the Internal Revenue Service – even several politicians who collect salaries thanks to the revenue that agency gathers.</p><p>Several Americans United staffers attended the Summit once again this year, and here is a sampling of what we heard. (Reader discretion is advised.)</p><p>* U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a contender for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, certainly seems to think God is above government: “[A]merica begins with the fundamental premise of religious liberty,” he said. “It’s the very first thing in the Bill of Rights. It’s the very first freedom upon which all our other liberties are built. This country was built on a revolutionary idea that our rights don’t come from government, they come from almighty God.”</p><p>* U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) piggybacked on Cruz’s idea and attempted to woo the crowd by posing as an evangelist: “What America needs is not just another politician or more promises, what America really needs is a revival.”</p><p>* Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin apparently doesn’t know the correct address of the White House: “You don’t retreat – you reload the truth,” she told the crowd. “Which I know is an endangered species at 1400 Pennsylvania Avenue, anyway, truth.”</p><p>* Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver once again encouraged pastors to defy the tax code by endorsing political candidates from the pulpit: “We’re going around the country encouraging pastors to be bold, to stand up and speak the truth.”</p><p>* Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) slammed the idea of a government that is not influenced by religion. “Many want us to believe that a secular society is a desirable goal,” he said. “If our culture is sick, capitalism, democracy and military might will not save us. The countries of Western Europe have weakened themselves by adopting a secular worldview which pushes matter of faith to the side. I’ve got no interest in seeing America go the way of Europe.”</p><p>That’s just a few examples of some of the disturbing (and silly) revelations made by speakers at the VVS last week. Stay tuned, because there is much more to come from AU on this topic including a feature story in the November issue of <em>Church &amp; State</em> magazine. </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/values-voter-summit">Values Voter Summit</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/family-research-council">Family Research Council</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/liberty-counsel">Liberty Counsel</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-family-association">American Family Association</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/rand-paul">Rand Paul</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bobby-jindal">Bobby Jindal</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/sarah-palin">sarah palin</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/mat-staver">Mat Staver</a></span></div></div>Mon, 29 Sep 2014 17:06:01 +0000Simon Brown10531 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/land-of-the-lost-highlights-from-the-values-voter-summit#comments(Un)Fantastic Five: A Remembrance Of Values Voter Summits Pasthttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/unfantastic-five-a-remembrance-of-values-voter-summits-past
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">More fun than a trip to Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan! It&#039;s the Values Voter Summit! </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>The Religious Right’s annual “Values Voter Summit” (VVS) takes place this weekend. Americans United staffers Simon Brown, Sarah Jones and I will be there. (Barry Lynn usually pops in too, in case anyone wants to take a selfie with him.)</p><p>If you are a religious person, please pray for us. If you’re not religious, please forward some recommendations for stress-relief strategies – favorite liquors, ice-cream brands, yoga positions, etc. – as I suspect we’ll all need some way to unwind when this thing is over.</p><p>The Summit is sponsored primarily by the Family Research Council along with the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel and others. I’ve been to a lot of these meetings over the years. Today I’d like to share with you five of my favorite (and by “favorite” I actually mean “most offensive”) speakers from Summits past – with a little information about what makes them so special.</p><p><strong>Herman Cain: </strong>Does anyone remember Herman Cain? Do the phrases “<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/herman-cains-misleading-pitch-for-the-999-plan/2011/10/12/gIQAHszPgL_blog.html">9-9-9</a>” and “<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/10/09/339879/cain-uzbekistan-beki-beki-stan-stan/">Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan</a>” ring a bell? Cain, you might recall, is a former pizza magnate who inexplicably became the Republican Party’s presidential front-runner for a brief period in 2011. He appeared at the Summit the same year, and I have to say, he wowed the crowd.</p><p>Unfortunately, it was all style, no substance. Cain’s platform consisted of a string of simplistic ideas passed off as homespun wisdom. Virtually no one who looked at his proposals seriously believed they could work. But he presented well, and his speech at VVS was an effective mix of fiery denunciations of President Barack Obama, humor and hubris. At one point he told the crowd, “My challenge to you is stay informed because we are up against a lot of stupid people in America.” (You don’t say!)</p><p>Cain had a lot of promise. No one, other than Cain himself, actually believed he was going to be president, but he could have worked the Religious Right’s speaking circuit for years propelled by his incredible bombast. Alas, not long after that speech, he started having trouser-related problems and was soon out of the race. Although he still works the Tea Party crowd, Cain hasn’t been back to the Summit since.</p><p><strong>Newt Gingrich:</strong> Smug and arrogant, the thrice-married serial adulterer Newt Gingrich is a VVS institution, even though he’s really just a walking sack of <em>chutzpah</em> on legs. Given his own checkered past when it comes to respecting the bonds of marriage, you would think Gingrich would refrain from accusing gays of trying to undermine that institution. But you would be wrong. He does it all of the time.</p><p>Gingrich is often lauded as a right-wing intellectual; I’ve never understood why. His grasp on American history and the text of the Constitution he claims to revere have always been tenuous at best. He seems to labor under the delusion that the United States was founded to be a religious state, and the last time I heard him speak he went on and on about his plan, if elected president, to remove federal judges who dare hand down rulings affirming the separation of church and state. He seemed untroubled by the fact that nothing in the Constitution gives the president the power to do that.</p><p>Gingrich’s own ethical lapses, of course, are <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/gingrich-congressional-ethics-scandal-explained-newt-inc">well known</a>. That doesn’t stop him from judging everyone else.</p><p><strong>Star Parker:</strong> I’ve had the misfortune to hear Star Parker speak perhaps a dozen times. Prior to her appearances at the Summit, she was a regular fixture at the Christian Coalition’s “Road to Victory” events during the 1990s.</p><p>Parker’s claim to fame – and it’s a very old, tired story – is that she says she was once a drug addict and welfare mother who lived in a taxpayer-subsidized luxury apartment with a swimming pool, fireplace and sunken living room in California. (Jesus delivered her from all that.) As far as I know, no one has ever bothered to check her implausible story.</p><p>Parker doesn’t so much speak as she does scream. She’s frequently incoherent and usually delivers a stream-of-consciousness rant that careens from one Bible verse to another. Also, she <em>really</em> does not like liberals, gay people or atheists.</p><p><strong>Bryan Fischer: </strong>The American Family Association’s resident extremism czar, Fischer first came to my attention some years ago after he wrote a column suggesting that a killer whale at SeaWorld that had killed a trainer should be executed. You see, that’s what the Bible calls for. (You might have seen <a href="http://blackfishmovie.com/">this documentary</a>, which explores the issue with considerably more nuance.)</p><p>Since then, Fischer has unleashed a <a href="https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/values-void-religious-right-group-says-southern-poverty-law-center-is-agent">string of gems</a>: implying that women’s suffrage was a mistake, asserting that states can ban Islam, demanding religious tests in the military, opining that the lack of mandatory prayer in public schools led to the Newtown, Conn., school shootings and so on.</p><p>Fischer’s actually not a very compelling speaker. His main attraction is that you never know what he’s going to say next – but you can be sure that it will be pretty insane. At the 2009 VVS, he informed the crowd that Adolf Hitler had invented the separation of church and state.</p><p><strong>Glenn Beck: </strong>Listening to Glenn Beck speak is like watching an avant-garde movie. You might not know what’s going on most of the time, but it’s just strange enough that you keep looking.</p><p>Beck’s delivery is so dramatic and staged that it’s often easy to overlook the fact that what he’s saying makes no sense. The last time I heard him speak, I was uncertain if I had just heard the ramblings of a madman or a brilliant piece of performance art. He’s a lot like Howard Beale from “Network.” He goes on and on, and you keep waiting for him to tell you to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WINDtlPXmmE">stick your head out the window</a>. But in the end, he’s crying and you feel like it too.</p><p>I’m still not convinced that Beck actually believes the things he says – can an entire belief system rest on word salad? – but there’s no denying that it does pay the bills.</p><p align="center">* * *</p><p>I’m not sure that this year’s event can top any of that, but we’re about to find out.</p><p>Although I poke fun, don’t get the wrong idea. These people are scary. There is one thing you can’t deny about the Values Voter Summit: They put it all right out there. Summiteers have a vision for America. It’s a nightmarish theocracy where LGBT Americans, non-Christians, progressive and moderate Christians, women, non-believers and others would find their rights curtailed, if not gone entirely.</p><p>Every year, the forces of retrogression and oppression spend two days plotting to knock down the church-state wall and raise the banner for their vision of a “godly” society based on “Christian” values. They outline their plan and vow to bring it about. Onward go the Christian soldiers.</p><p>We can’t say we weren’t warned.</p><p>P.S. Be sure to visit “The Wall of Separation” on Monday. Simon will have some thoughts on this year’s Summit. For more on what this event is like, <a href="https://www.au.org/church-state/november-2011-church-state/featured/bombast-bigotry-and-the-bible">here is a personal reflection</a> I wrote about the 2011 confab.</p><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/values-voter-summit">Values Voter Summit</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/family-research-council">Family Research Council</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/newt-gingrich">Newt Gingrich</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/star-parker">Star Parker</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bryan-fischer">Bryan Fischer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/glenn-beck">Glenn Beck</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/herman-cain">Herman Cain</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/howard-beale">Howard Beale</a></span></div></div>Fri, 26 Sep 2014 15:08:43 +0000Rob Boston10530 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/unfantastic-five-a-remembrance-of-values-voter-summits-past#commentsD’Souza’s Downfall: Religious Right Favorite Sentenced For Campaign Donation Violationshttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/d-souza-s-downfall-religious-right-favorite-sentenced-for-campaign-donation
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Dinesh D’Souza’s world, nothing is ever his fault.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Yesterday conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/23/dinesh-dsouza-sentenced_n_5869666.html?&amp;ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000016">sentenced</a> to five years of probation and a term of community service for violating federal campaign laws. He must also pay a fine of $30,000.</p><p>For many years, D’Souza was a garden-variety conservative who preached the standard libertarian line of small government and low taxes. At some point, he decided to climb aboard the Religious Right gravy train. In 2007 he penned a book titled <em>What’s So Great About Christianity</em>. He spoke at the Values Voter Summit in 2012 and has appeared at other Religious Right gatherings – often collecting hefty speaking fees.</p><p>Even while excoriating “the left” for its lack of values, D’Souza was busy constructing an ethics void of his own. In the lead-up to the 2012 elections, he was so determined to help Wendy Long, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and a friend of his, that he decided to violate federal law.</p><p>D’Souza convinced two associates to make donations of $10,000 (the maximum for an individual) to Long’s campaign. He then reimbursed them. This is completely illegal, and D’Souza, who has worked in the political sphere for decades, surely knew that.</p><p>Caught red-handed, D’Souza’s first defense was to assert that the prosecution was really a political vendetta from President Barack Obama, a frequent target for D’Souza’s attacks. But that fell flat when the federal judge overseeing his case <a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2014/09/16/dsouzas-astonishingly-incoherent-defense/">quickly noted</a> that several Democrats had been charged with the identical offense at the same time.</p><p>So D’Souza basically threw himself on the mercy of the court. He admitted what he did was wrong and claimed to be very contrite – at least that’s what he said in court. D’Souza sounded less than contrite outside of court, where he continued telling fellow right-wingers that the whole thing was an Obama frame-up.</p><p>D’Souza could have faced more than a year in prison. Instead, he will spend eight months in a kind of halfway house and do community service once a week. All in all, it’s a light sentence considering that he knowingly violated the law.</p><p>That’s hypocrisy count one.</p><p>Here’s count two: In 2012, D’Souza left his wife for a much younger woman. While still legally married, he arrived at a Religious Right conference in September at a Baptist church in South Carolina with his new paramour, Denise Odie Joseph II, in tow. He introduced her to several people as his fiancée. (Joseph was <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/2014/04/secret-recording-dinesh-dsouza-his-lovers">married as well</a>.)</p><p><em>World</em> magazine, hardly a font of mad-dog liberalism, <a href="http://www.worldmag.com/2012/10/king_s_crisis">picks up the story</a> from there: “Although D’Souza has been married for 20 years to his wife, Dixie, in South Carolina he was with a young woman, Denise Odie Joseph II, and introduced her to at least three people as his fiancée. Finally, near 11 p.m., event organizer Tony Beam escorted D’Souza and Joseph to the nearby Comfort Suites. Beam noted that they checked in together and were apparently sharing a room for the night in the sold-out hotel. The next morning, around 6 a.m., Beam arrived back at the hotel and called up to D’Souza’s room. ‘We’ll be down in 10 minutes,’ D’Souza told Beam. D’Souza and Joseph came down together, and Beam took them to the airport. The next day another conference organizer, Alex McFarland, distressed by D’Souza’s behavior, confronted him in a telephone conversation. D’Souza admitted he shared a room with his fiancée but said ‘nothing happened.’”</p><p>Such hubris! But the fallout came quickly. D’Souza had been serving as president of the King’s College, an evangelical institution in New York City. The school <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/nyregion/dinesh-dsouza-is-out-as-kings-college-president-in-scandal.html?_r=0">fired him</a> – well, accepted his resignation.</p><p>But in D’Souza’s world, nothing is ever his fault. Yes, he knew it was illegal to launder those campaign donations, but Obama is still to blame. And as for his girlfriend and the whole adultery thing, that’s just some hyper-sensitive evangelicals getting all bent out of shape.</p><p>He even blamed his wife for leaving him. Not surprisingly, her version of events is a little different. She wrote a rather scathing letter to the court, which you can <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/240722830/Dixie-D-Souza-s-Letter-to-Judge">read here</a>. Spoiler: D’Souza doesn’t come off looking good. Dixie accuses him of forging her signature on a document and of physical assault.</p><p>All of this comes from a man who built a career out of smugly judging others and insisting that his religion – D’Souza was raised Roman Catholic but at some point converted to evangelical Protestantism and declared himself “born again” – is superior to any other worldview. (Check out <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1121/p09s01-coop.html">this 2006 column</a> in which he argues that atheism is responsible for mass murder.) His own arrogance led to his fall.</p><p>I don’t know what kind of community service D’Souza will be doing, but I hope it’s something like picking up trash along the highway or cutting back weeds in a public park. My fear is that some misguided official will let this guy work with troubled young people. That would be a disaster. Kids in crisis need a real role model with a moral center. D’Souza, an ethically challenged hypocrite, hardly fits the bill.</p><p> </p><p> </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/dinesh-dsouza">Dinesh D&#039;Souza</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/denise-odie-joseph">Denise Odie Joseph</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/world-magazine">World magazine</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tony-beam">Tony Beam</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/south-carolina">South Carolina</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/values-voter-summit">Values Voter Summit</a></span></div></div>Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:55:16 +0000Rob Boston10511 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/d-souza-s-downfall-religious-right-favorite-sentenced-for-campaign-donation#commentsTyranny: At The Values Voter Summit, A Heavy Word Is So Lightly Thrown https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/tyranny-at-the-values-voter-summit-a-heavy-word-is-so-lightly-thrown
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">To supporters of the Religious Right, any attempt to stop them from running the lives of others is tyranny.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Yesterday my colleague Simon Brown <a href="https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/outrageous-oration-values-voter-summit-ignores-reality">offered some thoughts</a> on the Religious Right's <a href="http://www.frcaction.org/get.cfm?i=PG13J03">Values Voter Summit</a>, which he attended this weekend.</p><p>I was there for part of it as well. One thing that struck me was the constant use of the word “tyranny.” To supporters of the Religious Right, any attempt to stop them from running the lives of others or expecting them to obey the same laws that the rest of us must follow is tyranny.</p><p>The word was frequently pressed into service during a Saturday afternoon session I attended titled “Where Do We go From Here?: Challenging Tyranny.”</p><p>One of the speakers, Dean Clancy of FreedomWorks, discussed tyranny extensively. Clancy told the crowd, “FreedomWorks is very much concerned about tyranny. It is a very real thing.”</p><p>Clancy blasted the “judicial tryranny” of Supreme Court rulings that legalized abortion, decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting adults and struck down key portions of the Defense of Marriage Act..</p><p>“These are all tyrannical decisions,” he fumed. A moment later Clancy blasted “fiscal tyranny” and “monetary tyranny” that, he said, are so bad that “eventually our country will be ruined financially.”</p><p>(Clancy’s answer to all of this tyranny is, not surprisingly, highly partisan. He told the crowd to elect the right kind of Republicans, remarking, “One Ted Cruz or Mike Lee is worth 10 Bob Corkers.”)</p><p>Terry Jeffrey, editor of the far-right <a href="http://www.cnsnews.com/">CNSNews</a>, spoke just before Clancy. He also ranted about the “tyranny” of Obamacare and the requirement that most secular employers permit their workers to access health-care plans that include contraceptives.</p><p>“That’s a pretty powerful word – tyranny,” Jeffrey said. “But I think it’s an appropriate one.”</p><p>A third speaker, Luther Strange, attorney general of Alabama, talked about how state officials can block tyranny by gumming up federal laws and mandates.</p><p>Much of the outrage at the Summit, which was sponsored primarily by the Family Research Council, the American Family Association and the Heritage Foundation, was aimed at the new health-care law. I realize that Americans have different opinions about the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Americans United doesn’t take a stand on it, except to say that the birth control mandate promulgated by the Department of Health and Human Services reflects common sense and good public-health policy; someone’s decision to use birth control in no way impedes another’s religious liberty.</p><p>The American people may disagree on the ACA., but I would hope we could debate these issues with civility and employ some modicum of reason. Claims that the United States is on the verge of becoming a police state because of law that aims to help poor people get access to health care aren’t helpful. </p><p>Similar hyperbolic claims were made at another session I attended. The session ostensibly aimed to arm attendees with answers to “tough questions” about marriage equality and the HHS mandate. The answers given were familiar and tiresome Religious Right bromides wrapped in – you guessed it – claims of tyranny.</p><p>According to the Religious Right, it is “tyranny” to expect a businessperson who claims to serve the public to actually serve all of the public. These folks want a legal right to discriminate against LGBT Americans, and they scream “tyranny” when they are told that won’t fly. I suspect the innkeepers, restaurant owners, etc. in the Jim Crow South said the same thing when the federal government told them that their days of discriminating against African Americans were over.</p><p>I am a fan of the 1980s British pop band the Smiths. The Smiths’ singer and front man, who often went by his last name of Morrissey, is known for his ability to turn a clever phrase. In the song <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Difference_Does_It_Make%3F">“What Difference Does It Make?”</a> Morrissey warns of the dangers of “heavy words…so lightly thrown.”</p><p>Indeed there is a danger: In the case of the Values Voter Summit, a false definition of “tyranny” drains that word of its power. There are people in the world suffering under regimes that are really tyrannical. These people can be imprisoned, tortured and even killed for their religious or political beliefs.</p><p>In light of this, a Religious Right activist’s claims that our country has embraced “tyranny” because someone else is able to buy health care or get birth control sounds rather silly. It threatens to dull our senses to real tyranny and not speak up when we see it. In a world where every perceived slight is tyranny, it becomes too easy to overlook real instances of human-rights violations.</p><p>Morrissey was right. Tyranny is indeed a heavy word. Yet it was lightly thrown about at the Values Voter Summit.</p><p>For that – and for many other things – the Religious Right has so much to answer for. </p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/marriage-including-same-sex-marriage">Marriage (including same-sex Marriage)</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/reproductive-health-conscience-clauses-for-religious-objectors">Reproductive Health &amp; Conscience Clauses for Religious Objectors</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/values-voter-summit">Values Voter Summit</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/FRC">Family Research Council</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/heritage-foundation">Heritage Foundation</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/the-smiths">the Smiths</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/morrissey">Morrissey</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/birth-control-mandate">birth control mandate</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/affordable-care-act">Affordable Care Act</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/freedomworks">FreedomWorks</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/dean-clancy">Dean Clancy</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/terry-jeffrey">Terry Jeffrey</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/luther-strange">Luther Strange</a></span></div></div>Tue, 15 Oct 2013 14:23:48 +0000Rob Boston9053 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/tyranny-at-the-values-voter-summit-a-heavy-word-is-so-lightly-thrown#commentsOutrageous Oration: Values Voter Summit Ignores Realityhttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/outrageous-oration-values-voter-summit-ignores-reality
<a href="/about/people/simon-brown">Simon Brown</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">“America has a Judeo-Christian heritage and when I hear people say ‘separation of church and state,’ it concerns me because we cannot be separated from our faith,” former U.S. Rep. Allen West said.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>This past weekend, a collection of Religious Right groups, including the Family Research Council (FRC), American Family Association (AFA) and Liberty Counsel, held an event in Washington, D.C., called the Values Voter Summit (VVS). It’s an annual opportunity for the forces of the Religious Right to strategize on how they can “take America back.”</p><p>Despite the bitter defeat the Religious Right suffered in the 2012 presidential election, about 3,000 attendees from around the country showed up this year. They were addressed by a handful of politicians who wanted to pander to extreme conservative voters, as well as far-right stars like Glenn Beck, who just wanted to peddle their latest books. As usual, the speeches at the conference were filled with paranoia, delusion and hate. Here are some examples: </p><p>Church-state separation didn’t come up much over the weekend, but former U.S. Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), who once said that 78-81 members of the Democratic Party are communists, made sure to proclaim his fear of this principle. </p><p>“America has a Judeo-Christian heritage and when I hear people say ‘separation of church and state,’ it concerns me because we cannot be separated from our faith,” West said.</p><p>Many, many speakers spent their allotted time attacking Obamacare, describing it as anything from an assault on “religious liberty” to modern slavery.</p><p>“Obamacare is the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery,” said Dr. Ben Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who has become a right-wing icon thanks to his anti-Obama and homophobic comments. “And in a way it is slavery because it’s making us subservient to the government.”</p><p>And speaking of homophobic comments, quite a few were expressed at the VVS. The AFA, which has been labeled as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) because of its anti-gay rhetoric, attempted to defend itself – and managed to prove the SPLC right in the process.</p><p>“The American Family Association doesn’t hate anyone, including homosexuals,” said AFA radio host and Fox News contributor Sandy Rios. “We love them enough to tell them about the moral, physical and spiritual dangers of homosexuality.”</p><p>And what would a Values Voter Summit be without a huge dollop of paranoia? U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had that covered.</p><p>“These are extraordinary times… we can’t keep going down this road,” Cruz said. “We’re nearing the edge of a cliff. We have a couple years to turn this country around before we go off the cliff to oblivion.”</p><p>This is just a sampling of some of the wild and hateful claims made this weekend at the Values Voter Summit. For a full report on the VVS, check out the forthcoming November issue of <em>Church &amp; State</em>.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/sen-ted-cruz">Sen. Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/rep-allen-west">Rep. Allen West</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/dr-ben-carson">Dr. Ben Carson</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/glenn-beck">Glenn Beck</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/values-voter-summit">Values Voter Summit</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/sandy-rios">Sandy Rios</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/family-research-council">Family Research Council</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-family-association">American Family Association</a></span></div></div>Mon, 14 Oct 2013 17:53:10 +0000Simon Brown9052 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/outrageous-oration-values-voter-summit-ignores-reality#commentsValues Void: Religious Right Group Says Southern Poverty Law Center Is ‘Agent Of Hate’ https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/values-void-religious-right-group-says-southern-poverty-law-center-is-agent
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Is the American Family Association extreme? Judge for yourself. </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>A few days ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) issued <a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/members-of-congress-urged-to-not-legitimize-extremism-by-speaking-at-values-voter-">a press release</a> urging members of Congress not to attend the Family Research Council’s annual “Values Voter Summit,” which kicks off today.</p><p>The SPLC noted that the FRC and the American Family Association (AFA), which co-sponsors the Summit, “have long records of vilifying the LGBT community and spreading other forms of bigotry.”</p><p>In response, the AFA issued a press statement accusing the SPLC of being “an agent of hate by mindlessly and recklessly stirring up animosity against Americans who share the Christian values of the Founders.”</p><p>Furthermore, the AFA asserts, the SPLC is “a shameless fund-raising scam” that uses “innuendo, lies and manufactured charges” to rake in money. The SPLC’s crime, it seems, is that it has been raising funds to build an endowment – a fairly typical thing for non-profits to do.</p><p>Does the AFA spread bigotry? Is the group extreme? We can best answer those questions by examining some things that Bryan Fischer, the AFA’s director of issue analysis for government and public policy, has said within the past few years. Fischer has become a rock star in the world of the Religious Right by making outrageous statements. The AFA has made no effort to reel him in. </p><p>Here are just a few of Fischer’s greatest hits: </p><p><em>September 2013:</em> Fischer says that liberals plan to<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fischer-liberals-seek-eliminate-us-public-society"> “eliminate” conservative Christians</a> from society and force them into special zones where they’ll be required to wear identifying badges – just like Nazi Germany.</p><p><em>June 2013:</em> In the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down key provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act, <a href="https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/mad-over-marriage-religious-right-responds-to-today-s-supreme-court-rulings">Fischer tweets</a>, “With the DOMA decision, we have ceased to be a constitutional republic. The words “We the people’ are now meaningless” and “The DOMA ruling has now made the normalization of polygamy, pedophilia, incest and bestiality inevitable. Matter of time.”</p><p><em>May 2013:</em> Men, Fischer <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/29/christian-radio-host-upset-by-female-breadwinners-women-not-designed-to-be-providers/">patiently explains</a>, are “designed to be breadwinners for their families.” Women, on the other hand, are supposed to focus on “making a home for her children and for her husband.” If a woman works outside the home and earns more than her husband, Fischer said, “that’s gonna put some stress on his psyche, gonna put some stress on that marriage.”</p><p><em>March 2011:</em> Fischer writes <a href="https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/fischer-foolishness-religious-right-ranter-says-only-christians-have">a blog post </a>in which he opines that non-Christians have no legal rights in the United States. The First Amendment, he said, “was written by the Founders to protect the free exercise of Christianity.” Fischer went on to assert, “From a constitutional point of view, Muslims have no First Amendment right to build mosques in America. They have that privilege at the moment, but it is a privilege that can be revoked if, as is in fact the case, Islam is a totalitarian ideology dedicated to the destruction of the United States.”</p><p><em>February 2011:</em> Native Americans, Fischer <a href="http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/opinion/radio-evangelist-preaches-an-ugly-message-18550">writes in a column</a>, deserved to have their land taken from them due to their “superstition, savagery and sexual immorality.” Observed Fischer, “The native American tribes at the time of the European settlement and founding of the United States were, virtually without exception, steeped in the basest forms of superstition, had been guilty of savagery in warfare for hundreds of years, and practiced the most debased forms of sexuality.”</p><p><em>March 2010:</em> Fischer opines that a killer whale at SeaWorld that killed its trainer must be <a href="https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/whale-tale-afa-staffer-says-bible-mandates-death-for-seaworld-orca">stoned to death</a> because that’s the biblical penalty for animals that cause the death of a human.</p><p><em>September 2009:</em> Addressing the Values Voter Summit, Fischer tells the crowd that <a href="https://au.org/church-state/october-2009-church-state/featured/of-piety-partisanship">Adolf Hitler invented the separation of church and state</a>. “Politics do not belong in the church, the church must be separate from the state – these two mottos, these two slogans…came directly from the mind of Adolf Hitler,” Fischer remarked. “Those two mottos, those two slogans, were official mottos, official slogans, of the Nazi Party.”</p><p>That’s just a sample of what the AFA’s star employee has been saying over the past few years. And what about the SPLC? What has it been up to?</p><p>Well, it has successfully sued a number of neo-Nazi groups (causing some of them to shut down), closely monitored white supremacist organizations and sounded the alarm about their activities, published data on hate groups and sponsored programs that educate young people about LGBT citizens and their rights – among other things.</p><p>I leave it to you to determine which group is extreme.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/values-voter-summit">Values Voter Summit</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/FRC">Family Research Council</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-family-association">American Family Association</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/southern-poverty-law-center">Southern Poverty Law Center</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/bryan-fischer">Bryan Fischer</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/defense-of-marriage-act">Defense of Marriage Act</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/native-americans">Native Americans</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/seaworld">SeaWorld</a></span></div></div>Fri, 11 Oct 2013 14:06:53 +0000Rob Boston9051 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/values-void-religious-right-group-says-southern-poverty-law-center-is-agent#commentsCompassionate Christians: Despite What The Religious Right Says, Many People Of Faith Support LGBT Rights https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/compassionate-christians-despite-what-the-religious-right-says-many-people
<a href="/about/people/simon-brown">Simon Brown</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">It’s important for everyone to remember that while the Religious Right is large and powerful, it doesn’t speak for all Christians.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>Far too many people associate Christianity with homophobia thanks to Religious Right groups like the Family Research Council (FRC) and the American Family Association (AFA). A group of faithful moderates is out to change that perception.</p><p>This weekend, thousands of fundamentalist zealots will descend on Washington, D.C., for the annual “Values Voter Summit” (VVS) – a Religious Right confab sponsored by the FRC, AFA, Liberty Counsel and other Religious Right power groups. The meeting serves as an important strategy session for the Religious Right, and gives some very high profile politicians a chance to court the evangelical vote.</p><p>Although in recent years the Summit has partly morphed into an anti-Obamacare-palooza, groups like the FRC (which the Southern Poverty Law Center classified as a hate group) still use the event to attack marriage equality, demonize gay Americans and denounce LGBT rights.</p><p>In response to the VVS, a coalition of Christians and progressive advocates, including Truth Wins Out and the <a href="http://notalllikethat.org/">Not All Like That Christians Project</a>, came together in Washington today to condemn shrill rhetoric, denounce the VVS as a collection of minority fringe groups and explain that many Christians simply don’t support homophobia.</p><p>The coalition included the Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., who said that it is time for Christians who aren’t homophobic to proclaim their beliefs “as loudly and clearly as possible.”</p><p>Hall said that he rejects Religious Right claims that the Bible condemns homosexuality.</p><p>“If you read the Bible critically and carefully, God made us in his image and people are good,” he said. “The Christian church needs to say it’s good to be gay because that’s the way God made you.”</p><p>Hall stressed that this message is extremely important right now because so many gay youths are struggling with their identities, thanks in part to Religious Right rhetoric.</p><p>“We will save lives,” he said. “We will stop the bullying. We will change the hearts of the people in our pews.”</p><p>Another coalition member who spoke out against homophobia is <a href="http://www.frankschaeffer.com/">an ex-Religious Right rising star</a> who had a change of heart 30 years ago. Frank Schaeffer is the son of Francis Schaeffer, a Presbyterian minister and one of the founders of the Religious Right. Francis was influenced by<a href="https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/rushdoony%E2%80%99s-legacy-the-overlooked-influence-of-a-religious-right-godfather"> Rousas John Rushdoony</a>, the founder of the Christian Reconstructionist movement (which advocates that certain crimes should be subject to biblical punishments – such as stoning – among other things).</p><p>Schaeffer used to make a whole lot of money on the fundamentalist speaking circuit, he said, but realized he just wasn’t cut out to join the family business – in part because he didn’t hate gay people. He now has hope that others who were once like him can change their ways.</p><p>“I spent a good chunk of the first part of my life [being hateful],” he said. “If I can change, the country can change.”</p><p>Other coalition members chose to focus on the politics of the Values Voter Summit, noting that the most disturbing aspect of the conference is the <a href="https://au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/advice-ignored-politicos-attend-values-voter-summit-despite-pleas-from">volume of elected officials</a> who show up each year to kiss the Religious Right ring. Attendees this year include U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rand Paul (Ky.).</p><p>Ultimately, the coalition’s message was simple: Plenty of Christians don’t support the Religious Right’s agenda.</p><p>“Let’s be clear – the Values Voter Summit represents one specific viewpoint,” said Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out. “It does not represent all people of faith.”</p><p>Bingo. It’s important for everyone to remember that while the Religious Right is large and powerful, it doesn’t speak for all Christians. It may sometimes seem like they do because they’re really good at being very loud and claiming to be a majority when they are not.</p><p>The best way to change that perception is for moderate Christians to speak up. This coalition is a wonderful start. I suspect we’ll hear more from it in the future.</p><p>P.S. Americans United staffers will be attending the Values Voter Summit this weekend to do some reconnaissance. It’s always an eye-opening experience, so stay tuned for our reports.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/family-research-council">Family Research Council</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/libery-counsel">Libery Counsel</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-family-association">American Family Association</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/marco-rubio">Marco Rubio</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/rand-paul">Rand Paul</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/values-voter-summit">Values Voter Summit</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/very-rev-gary-hall">Very Rev. Gary Hall</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/wayne-besen">Wayne Besen</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/not-all-like-that-christians-project">Not All Like That Christians Project</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/truth-wins-out">Truth Wins Out</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/frank-schaeffer">Frank Schaeffer</a></span></div></div>Thu, 10 Oct 2013 17:20:01 +0000Simon Brown9049 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/compassionate-christians-despite-what-the-religious-right-says-many-people#commentsIn The Depths Of The Summit: What I Learned At This Year’s ‘Values Voter’ Confabhttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/in-the-depths-of-the-summit-what-i-learned-at-this-year-s-values-voter
<a href="/about/people/rob-boston">Rob Boston</a><div class="field field-name-field-blog-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/blogs/wall-of-separation">Wall of Separation</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-callout field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lost weekend: What I learned at the Values Voter Summit</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="prose"><p>I spent Friday and Saturday observing the Values Voter Summit (VVS), an annual Religious Right gathering in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Family Research Council, the American Family Association, the Heritage Foundation, Liberty University and other groups.</p><p>I attend every year. It’s educational! Here are some things I learned this year:</p><p><em>Radical Muslims are coming to get your mom.</em> U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) laid it all out for us: A super-secret entity called the Organization for Islamic Cooperation is soon going to impose an “Islamic enforced speech code” on America. Anyone who dares to criticize Islam is going straight to the pokey, First Amendment be damned. Of course President Barack Obama is in this thing up to his ears. “You would think this is a novel you’re reading, not reality!” Bachmann gushed. Come to think of it, <em>it is</em> like a novel – a really bad science fiction novel.</p><p><em>There’s a big monument in Massachusetts that proves the United States is a Christian nation. </em>Has-been TV star Kirk Cameron laid it out – in mind-numbing detail. The<a href="http://ctmonuments.net/2010/08/national-monument-to-the-forefathers-plymouth-mass/"> monument in question</a> is the National Monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth, Mass., and it was dedicated in 1889. Exactly how a monument built in the latter half of the 19th century proves we’re a Christian nation is beyond me, but I’ll admit I didn’t follow all of Kirk’s arguments – it was pretty early in the morning, after all.</p><p><em>When you’re explaining to people why the United States is a Christian nation, it’s best to use costumes.</em> The Rev. Dan Fisher, a Baptist pastor from Oklahoma, showed attendees of a church politicking breakout session a photo of himself dressed as John Peter Muhlenberg, a colonial-era pastor. One day in 1776, Muhlenberg, as the story goes, shocked his Virginia congregation by casting aside his clerical robe to reveal a military uniform underneath. He then announced his intention to kick some major British behind, and like 300 dudes signed up right on the spot to go with him. It was so cool! Unfortunately for Fisher, the story, which didn’t start circulating until long after Muhlenberg’s death, is considered by historians <a href="http://www.au.org/church-state/september-2010-church-state/featured/unreality-show">to be a myth</a>. Still, Fisher should keep the outfit. Halloween will be here soon.</p><p><em>If you are a young man and want to protest same-sex marriage, the preferred outfit is a blue blazer, gray trousers, a cheap red cape made of polyester and a large broach.</em> This was the get-up of the members of the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, who exhibited at the Summit. <a href="http://www.tfp.org/">They</a> are ultra-Catholics who pine for the days when Catholic kings ruled the West. I am not making this up.</p><p><em>President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society led to pre-marital sex.</em> This assertion came from Star Parker, a frequently incoherent (and often just plain unpleasant) woman who makes her living attacking government programs that help people in need. Parker opened her speech with a plea for the safe return of her friend’s expensive gold watch, which she mistakenly left in a hotel bathroom. It’s believed that LBJ might have taken it.</p><p><em>President Barack Obama cares more about lizards than people. </em>U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz from Texas asserted that Obama tried to block oil drilling in Texas by declaring a rare lizard endangered. It’s the kind of story this “big gummit”-hating crowd loves because it proves how the tree huggers elevate reptiles over people. The fact that <a href="http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Feds-say-West-Texas-lizard-does-not-merit-3632629.php">it’s not true</a> is no huge deal.</p><p><em>It’s OK to tell big, honking lies even if you are the nation’s “virtues czar.” </em>Former Education Secretary and <em>Book of Virtues</em> author William Bennett rewrote the events of last week in Libya. According to Bennett’s version, Obama dithered while Mitt Romney boldly and decisively stood up for America. What about Obama’s vow to bring the murderers to justice and Romney’s statement based on inaccurate information that even many Republicans thought was crass? In the world of the virtue czar, that apparently never happened.</p><p><em>There’s a war against chicken sandwiches.</em> U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) claimed that the Chick-fil-A fast food chain is facing “government force” over its anti-gay views. Actually, it is facing a consumer boycott, which is quite a different thing entirely. DeMint ought to chat with the boycott-happy Don Wildmon of the American Family Association to learn the difference.</p><p><em>This is the most important election <strong>in the history of the universe</strong>. </em>At least a dozen speakers said that the 2012 election is the most important ever, with the very survival of the United States and the fate of Western Civilization hanging in the balance. This is in no way diluted by the fact that VVS speakers say this every election year.</p><p>It may be entertaining to poke some fun at the Summit, but the nightmarish theocracy these people are trying to create is anything but funny. To get the full scoop, be sure to read my full report on the VVS in the October issue of <em>Church &amp; State</em>, which will be online soon.</p><p>P.S. Today is <a href="http://constitutioncenter.org/constitution-day/">Constitution Day</a>. Take a minute to celebrate that document and reaffirm your commitment to protecting it. Remember, there are people who want to shred the Constitution. I spent time with some of them this weekend.</p></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Issues:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/issues/descriptions-and-activities-religious-right-groups">Descriptions and Activities of Religious Right Groups</a></span></div></div><div class="tags clearfix"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/values-voter-summit">Values Voter Summit</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/family-research-council">Family Research Council</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/tony-perkins">Tony Perkins</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/barack-obama">Barack Obama</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/mitt-romney">Mitt Romney</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/star-parker">Star Parker</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/william-bennett">William Bennett</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/american-society-for-the-defense-of-tradition-family-and-property">American Society for the Defense of Tradition Family and Property</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/ted-cruz">Ted Cruz</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/jim-demint">Jim DeMint</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/michele-bachmann">Michele Bachmann</a></span>, <span class="field-item"><a href="/tags/chik-fil-a">Chik-Fil-a</a></span></div></div>Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:26:57 +0000Rob Boston7548 at https://www.au.orghttps://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/in-the-depths-of-the-summit-what-i-learned-at-this-year-s-values-voter#comments